Chapter 69
Chapter 69
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 69
Chapter Title: The Brawl and the Talking Orc
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“...I’m sorry... I was wrong...”
After a brief talk with President Yang, I returned to find Jeong Ji-eun on her knees, head bowed low, begging Na-young for forgiveness. Both of them had faces covered in scratches, their clothes and hair a total mess.
Item display cases were shattered here and there, and the walls and floor were smashed up. It looked like a typhoon had swept through.
In the back, Ye-seul lay unconscious. Her breathing and heartbeat were steady, so she’d just fainted.
“What happened here?”
“Uh... Oppa... It’s just...”
Na-young glanced back and forth between me and Ji-eun, looking anxious. Seizing the moment when Na-young couldn’t explain properly, Jeong Ji-eun crawled toward me on her knees.
“Lee Ji-seok Hunter! This woman assaulted me! She even used skills on me!”
“She’s my girlfriend, Na-young. She’s not the type to start trouble. What did you do?”
I’d never seen Na-young get into a brawl like this—with people or dogs. She might snap if provoked, but she wasn’t one to cause problems first.
“Oppa...”
Tears welled up in Na-young’s eyes.
“Girlfriend...? You have a girlfriend? Fine, whatever! What did I do?! You’re blaming me without even knowing what happened?”
Jeong Ji-eun shoved me. But I wasn’t the type to budge from a healer’s push, so she lost her balance and fell instead.
“We can see what happened on the video, right?”
I pointed to the camera overhead. This area was restricted due to the piles of valuables, and cameras ran constantly.
“You... You think you’ll get away with this? The Guild Master won’t let you off!”
* * *
In the Rose Guild Master’s office, we replayed the CCTV footage to clarify what happened.
In the video, Jeong Ji-eun mounted the fallen Na-young and rained down punches. Na-young blocked a few, then deflected Ji-eun’s fist with her arm, grabbed her by the collar, and flipped her over.
That dynamic vision to swat away incoming punches had been honed through all our training sessions. A typical healer wouldn’t even face direct attacks like that.
Na-young could’ve mounted Ji-eun too, but she pulled back.
“Take this!”
Ji-eun sprang up and charged. Na-young, keeping distance, unleashed a high kick with her long legs.
Ji-eun raised her arms to block, but the impact still looked brutal even through the guard.
Na-young followed with low kicks, then a flurry of punches using her reach. The combos were flawless.
As everyone watched the video and turned to stare at Na-young, she bowed her head deeply.
“Isn’t she... a magic-type?”
Hunter Jeong Min-gi asked with a stunned look.
“Yeah.”
I answered for her.
After that, it was one-sided. Na-young didn’t dodge Ji-eun’s attacks—she took them and hit back twice or three times as hard for each one she ate. It looked like she’d learned from watching me fight. I’d have to warn her about that. I could recover, but she couldn’t.
Whenever Ji-eun tried to heal, Na-young hammered her with punches, leaving Ji-eun unable to heal and taking a thorough beating. Contrary to Ji-eun’s claim of skill use, Na-young showed no signs of using any.
“I... I’m sorry!”
Finally, she dropped to her knees, hands out, begging. With that, we turned off the screen.
“Sorry about this...”
Hunter Jeong Min-gi bowed his head. Next to him, Jeong Ji-eun bowed too, but her face was full of resentment.
“It’s my fault for not training our hunters properly.”
“Well... Ji-eun started it, but it was mutual assault, so it’s fine. Bae Na-young Hunter wanted to let it slide too.”
Na-young, sitting beside me, nodded. Like in the video, she’d beaten Ji-eun thoroughly enough to have no lingering grudges.
“Really, sorry again.”
“And what about Choi Ye-seul Hunter going forward?”
At Ye-seul’s name, Ji-eun flinched.
“It’ll be hard for her to stay with Ji-eun Hunter, that’s for sure.”
Hunter Jeong Min-gi rubbed his temples like his head hurt.
“She’ll have to sit out the A-Rank Gate team, right?”
They couldn’t afford to bench Jeong Ji-eun, one of the few A-Rank healers nationwide, so from the guild’s perspective, sidelining the victim—C-Rank Choi Ye-seul—was better.
“Probably. But I’ll personally make sure she joins a good team and nothing like this happens again.”
Dropping from an A-Rank Gate team to B- or C-Rank ones would slow her growth. I’d meant to help her, but now I’d ended up hindering it.
“Don’t do that—hand her over to us?”
“Hand her over?”
“She’s just C-Rank anyway, so it won’t hurt Rose Guild much, right?”
Line up the B- and C-Rank hunters dying to join Rose Guild, and the queue would stretch hundreds of meters.
“If she’s okay with it, no reason for us to stop her.”
Hunter Jeong Min-gi turned to Ye-seul.
“Ye-seul, we’re heading into A-Rank Gates on our own now too. We need a healer. Wanna join us?”
“I’ll stay with Rose Guild, though. A lot of my colleagues are here.”
Ye-seul politely declined.
“The compensation would be like this...”
I scribbled a salary on paper and slid it to her.
“Please take care of me.”
Ye-seul bowed deeply and accepted on the spot.
“Lee Ji-seok Hunter, how much did you write there?”
I just shrugged at Hunter Jeong Min-gi’s question.
No guild would offer a C-Rank such generous terms. I wouldn’t for a run-of-the-mill C-Rank either, but this was an investment in someone clearly headed for A-Rank—no regrets.
* * *
“Hyung, they changed the A-Rank Gate entry to just two people. No incidents for months, so they’re lowering the alert level, I guess.”
Na-young suddenly gazed off at a distant mountain.
“Yeah. Must be because there’ve been no incidents.”
I could tell Na-young had pulled some strings. She’d just jumped to A-Rank, and now the required A-Rank hunters for entry dropped from five to two—this was too good to pass up.
“Na-young, Director Baek asked about you. Seen him lately?”
Bureau Chief Baek Young-shin had asked if Na-young was doing well, but his expression seemed more worried about what she might stir up than genuine concern.
“Nope, haven’t met.”
She still wouldn’t meet my eyes.
“Well, whatever the reason, now we can move in earnest.”
Entry was no issue now. Multiple guild teams would enter the A-Rank Gate, so we’d compete with others, but our mobility was superior—no problem. The gate was huge anyway.
“You three plus Choi Ye-seul Hunter will go together.”
“Oppa, is four okay?”
“More than enough—overkill, even. Truth is, we’re going to train Sang-hun and Ye-seul Hunter. Just you and me would suffice.”
* * *
“Hyung!! Aren’t you gonna help?!”
Sang-hun yelled, surrounded by a pack of lizardmen. They were E-Rank, no match for him, but the problem was the Lizardman King. The ones it commanded were buffed up, growing stronger the more there were—dozens now, each hitting C-Rank monster levels.
“Ye-seul, just keep him from dying.”
“Y-Yes... Got it!”
Ye-seul sweated bullets, healing and buffing Sang-hun to keep him alive.
From behind, Na-young cast Blind. The lizardmen were like severely nearsighted patients without their glasses—shapes visible but details blurry. As long as Sang-hun stayed alert, he wouldn’t die.
Sang-hun dodged the lizardmen’s tridents coming from all sides, but outnumbered, he couldn’t counter—just tried to create space.
“Sang-hun, if you retreat, I’m leaving you behind?”
“Hyung! This isn’t payback for what I told Noona, is it?!”
“If you’ve got time to say that, you’re still good.”
I watched him scream and munched on snacks. Not out of anger—this was for Sang-hun’s growth. He couldn’t stay C-Rank forever.
Seeing me casually sit and eat jerky, Ye-seul looked regretful. *Are these people villains? Why did I come here?*
But this was good for her too. Healers level up fastest healing the heavily injured in danger. No party grinds members like this for healer XP. I’d send her with O-hyung later too.
Na-young, who’d been jealous of Ye-seul without showing it, eased up watching me work them. Plus, I’d openly called Na-young my girlfriend in front of everyone. We hadn’t hidden it before anyway.
In my past life, I’d seen Ye-seul romantically, but survival left no room for more. Now with Na-young, no interest in others. For Ye-seul, just repaying a debt.
We cleared the gate steadily, leveling all four of us.
We’d just cleared today’s A-Rank Gate and exited.
“Hyung! That guy’s being chased by an orc, I think!”
Far off, a silver-haired noble-looking man and an orc charged toward us.
“An orc outside the gate? Rare...”
I looked where Sang-hun pointed.
“That guy doesn’t look chased. He’s running neck-and-neck with the orc. And who’re those people behind?”
“Behind? Where?”
Squinting, Sang-hun spotted them: over a dozen hunters heading our way.
I went to smash the orc’s head with aura first, deal with the monster. But... this orc was different. Unlike the usual naked ones, it wore clothes like a wizard. Never seen or heard of an orc so neatly dressed.
No real threat anyway, so I dispersed and reabsorbed the gathered aura to assess.
“Huh? Hyung, those guys behind are Blue Dragon Guild!”
Sang-hun spotted the pursuing hunters. Blue Dragon ranked 3rd among Korean guilds. They claimed 1st due to numbers, but no S-Ranks and fewer A-Ranks than 2nd-place Valkyrie Guild kept them at perennial 3rd.
Still, not to underestimate—thousands registered, down to F-Ranks.
“Don’t attack!”
The man running with the orc blocked it upfront.
“This one’s not a monster!”
His flowing silver hair whipped as the noble-like man spoke. Slim build, but his presence screamed powerhouse.
“Everyone, behind me. Stay tense, ready to fight or flee.”
I pulled Na-young, Sang-hun, and Ye-seul back.
The silver-haired man and orc slowed as they neared.
The orc stared right at my face.
“Hello. I am Sonorim. Are you the warrior who felled Helen?”
The orc Sonorim spoke in a calm mid-low tone. Around my height, with a sturdy orc build, he showed none of the usual orc rage or madness toward humans.
“Hyung! It... It spoke! The orc!”
“The notion that orcs can’t speak is mistaken common sense. You’ve only seen orcs invading your world, so I can’t blame you.”
“And you are?”
I held up a hand, blocking further approach, and asked.
“We’re from Tellus. I’m Sonorim, scholar and mage. This is Blitz, our warrior.”
His tone was utterly calm and polite.
But.
“Tellus!”
The three behind me instantly went into combat stance.